The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-05-18
"The Sunny South -. mo. 9.

iHt SUNNY DOutH -s-NUs Ss
Editor Wdtchmon:-I wish to confne my
remarks mainly to this region of western
North Carolina, for reasons which will APP
pear later in this letter, giving principal
attention to places coming within my obser-
walton, and therefore ! will write of the
towns or cities of
AsHEvILLE AND wAYNEsvILLE.
These are to-day the objective points in
this region for persons who, like myself,
are afflicted with pulmonary complaints
Ashevlle is $3.50 feet and Waynesville
2,75O feet above sea level and the writer's
upon " health resorts " have pictured them
with such perfect foreground Of lovely
flowers and the background with their high
mountain-peaks and with sparkling springs
of purest water and with its even tempera-
ture, giving what they please to term an
all the year climate" with which only few
places on the globe will compare placing it
on a par with Geneva, Turin, Vienna and
Milan, these most famous European winter
resorts.
The average temperature for spring Is
54'-3; summer, 1913; autumn, 1928; winter,
37o-5; average for the year, %. The rain
fall in this region has been for eleven years
as follows: Spring, l0.1 inches summer
1875 inches; autumn, IL inches; winter, 9.5
inches-equal to 40.2 inches per year. Sell
dom do they see snow, either in the sur
rounding country or on the mountainous.
But in December last the paper brought us
the news that in this very city of such lowell
ness they had twenty-six inches at one fall,
doing much damage to tobacco warehouses
and other property.
This city is said to contain 5000 people
within the corporation limits of four miles
square. II is the grand center F" of this
whole region (size of Massachusetts,. 1t is
not peculiar or unlike many northern
towns in its business streets and buildings,
its churches or residences, and a northern
man passing through the place would see
many things to remind of home, but if he
stays there, as I did for three months, he
would see the wonderful difference in Gus
toms,
WAYS OF TRADE AND HABITS OF THE
PEOPLE,
which would make him long for his native
hearth and home. The manner of living or
rather the cooking, to an invalid is simply
detestable, and is unfit for sustenance. /
cannot in this letter attempt to describe the
various articles and the way the colored
cook prepares them. 1t would take your
whole paper.
A writer for railroad guide through the
South" in the interest no doubt of both
the Richmond & Danville syndicate and the
city of Asheville, says; "The streets 1S9D
are being macadamized, the pavement laid
with stone and water-works erected to sup
ply fresh water from cluster of springs on
| the overhanging mountains" Our visit in
| 1890 showed Jnat tne main business street,
called Main street, and Patton avenue,
| leading from town down the incline to the
! river bottom and to the railroad station, had
been literally spoiled by having mass of
| shapeless stone of all sizes thrown upon its
! surface to be trodden down beneath the soil
of red clay and gravel when rain-storm
! had softened the road-bed so as to allow of
! it, and strangers are ushered into town in
bus and coach, here getting first fixed i'm
pressions. No country town in New Eng
| land in the worst season of mud and frozen
| ground can exhibit such fearful road-beds as
the boosted streets of this southern city. The
residence streets are little better having
in most of them only one sidewalk, but the
street exhibiting three distinct features.
To-day the road-bed is smooth hard and
fearful dusty. Then rainy day, with the
necessary continuous travel of all sorts of
vehicles, and you have a sticky, red clay
mud from six to twelve inches deep. Again
| fair weather and bright sun, and this mass is
made into deep ruts, dried as hard as Yer
mont winter could freeze it, and this must
be worn down again before you have the
smooth road-bed. This condition is contin-
ually changing with storm and sun. AS for
water, that great thirst-quencher, it is
ALL OBTAINED FROM WELLS
on each mans premises, and it is so mpreg-
mated with the condition of the soil and the
"top wash f" as to be unhealthy. causing
diarrhpa with both old and young, and this
may be reason why so much whiskey is
drank and recommended by the resident
physicians for pulmonary trouble. This /
know, myself and wife and nearly all with
whom we ever associated were similarly
afflicted. There are white and yellow sui
phur springs, and chalybeate or iron, but in
all my travels l was not informed of a
Sparkling spring" of pure water, other
than those mentioned as being brought to
town, and this supply did not cover so much
as the business street and few hotels.
l.. w. JONES.